There are sites that allow you to calculate recipies. Sparkpeople being one. Just enter the ingredients and how many servings you want to divide it into. Then when its ready to serve, divide it into that many servings. If you are 20 calories under or over its not going to ruin your weight loss. Calorie counting is meant to be flexible and allow you to eat anything you want in moderation. You have got to loosen up because right now you are setting yourself up for failure. You can't succeed if you don't learn to be flexible.

I'd work on getting over it also It's hard to get out of that mind set but you can! You do not have to torture yourself with boring stuff to eat.

A typical lunch for me is a sandwich & salad or a wrap (with most of my salad on it lol). For dinner I can do either simple like baked chicken, brown rice and steamed veggies or complex like last night we had homemade seafood gumbo.

I love to cook...there are websites where you can plug in the ingredients to get the calorie total or cookbooks that have the calorie count per serving under the recipe.

__________________Tanee

"The most exciting, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself."

The reason I count calories is because it is flexible. EVERYTHING CAN BE COUNTED, MEASURED AND TABULATED!!!!! It is not that difficult and is preferable to being obese. There are websites that can help you with this , or you can get a good calorie counting book. I use calorie king , it has calorie counts for all sorts of foods. including fast foods, restaurants and ethnic foods. You can do it !!!!!

I second calorieking. I'm currently using it and have used it in the past and it's been effective. You just need to make sure you record EVERYTHING. Snacking while cooking is my downfall, as little things add up and must be accounted for. A food scale is a must.

I agree with the 'get over it' comments. I make huge pots of chili, with lots of ingredients and then I divide them up (usually by weight) and freeze them. In the winter I do the same thing with stews. For any other dish I weigh my meat portion and then just divide the other ingredients in half (when I'm cooking for two). You'll be close enough, trust me.

Lunches for me are usually wraps (beef/pork/turkey with lettuce and mustard) and some kind of fruit. Dinners can be anything (hamburgers, pizza, steak, chicken, pork, chili, gumbo, etc.). That's kind of the entire idea of calorie counting - flexibility.

I understand. When I first started, I had the same question. What can I eat? Everything that I normally ate was bad for me. I saw a nutritionist that gave me a list of foods. It was a huge help just to give me ideas of what to eat.

I suggest that you read through some menus here at 3fchicks. I know that cfmama has posted some of her menus and there are others also around. Search the site for "menus" "snacks" "vegetables". The stickies at the top of this forum has some good recipe ideas.

I have a terrible problem with perfectionism when trying to lose weight, and feel that if I eat even one "wrong" thing, I've blown everything, and then proceed to go back to old eating habits.

The problem is, if I'm going to count calories, I want to be able to be accurate, which, to me, means not being able to cook casseroles or anything "mixed" like that. In my mind, I'm going to have to eat strictly foods that are able to be measured, counted, tabulated.

Ummm....think about this: you eat one wrong thing, which means you blew it! You screwed up! Life is over and there's no redemption because you made ONE MISTAKE!!! And therefore...you keep making that same mistake? Huh? Throw yourself down stairs much, do you? No human is perfect, dear. Not you, and certainly not me.

Besides, who says what a "wrong" food choice is, anyway? For example: there's a tremendous push toward dairy foods for the calcium and the hocus-pocus weight-loss benefits, but I'm lactose intolerant. If I have pills with me, dairy can be a "right" choice. But if I don't, dairy is definitely a "wrong" choice!

Alright, [/lecture].

Specifically addressing your question, why can't casseroles be counted? I'm a tremendous fan of "cream of chicken soup" casseroles. Weigh 4 ounces of pasta and cook it (for the pasta I use, 360 calories)...add half a bag of frozen veggies (175 calories)...add a can of cream of chicken soup (200 calories)...half a cup of skim milk (45 calories)...add a can of white chicken in water (315 calories)...and 2% cheese (120 calories).

In the entire casserole now I know I have 1215 calories. I also know how much my pan weighs (because I weighed it before I put anything in it) so I know how much the casserole weighs, too (because I weighed the whole thing when it was done cooking, and subtracted the weight of the pan). Divide 1215 by the number of ounces of casserole, and you have the calories per ounce. Then just weigh how much you want to eat, and multiply by that number to find the number of calories in your meal.

Or do it the lazy way: figure you've got 1215 calories, eyeball about a quarter of the pan, and call it 300 calories. Whatever works!!

Point is, dear heart, don't make this harder than it has to be. And don't let yourself "excuse" yourself out of getting healthy and reaching your goals! Remember, this is about progress, not perfection.

__________________"If hunger is not the problem, food is not the answer." ~Silversun (and others!)

"GWF powers, ACTIVATE!"~dangerousfish

"How does one become a butterfly?" she asked pensively.
"You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."~ Trina Paulus, Hope for the Flowers

I didn't get a chance to see your original post, but I wanted to let you know I struggle with the perfectionist thing too (in many areas of my life, not just food). It's so very hard to do, but you need to find a way to live a gray life - not black or white, but somewhere in the middle. I'm sure therapy had a lot ot do with it, but I'm really shedding the all or nothing thinking. It's so destructive and "all" is so incredibly difficult to maintain that you are doomed to end up in "nothing" mode every time you try. It takes being forgiving of yourself, flexible, and most of all a mindset that your success or failure cannot possibly hinge on one meal or one day. It's a million small decisions, pointed in the right direction (and some in the wrong direction that you have to let go) that get you where you want to be. Perfection is an unattainable trap. You must try not to let yourself get sucked in.

I have so been there. And am there quite a lot. I found that getting used to this new healthy lifestyle take some time. and planning, and online research. The internet has helped me tremendously with meal planning and recipes and ideas. So you're not alone!!!!

__________________

Next goal---ONDERLAND!

Posts by members, moderators and admins are not considered medical advice and no guarantee is made against accuracy.